English Language Teaching Global Blog

Announcing the 2014 Headway Scholarship

When John and I started writing Headway we had certain beliefs about ELT borne out of our experience as teachers and teacher trainers. And, like many teachers, we weren’t always entirely happy with the courses we used. However, we decided to stop whinging and have a go at creating a course of our own. We never imagined that Headway would become the chosen course of countless ELT classes round the world. We were flattered that so many teachers seemed to find our approach complemented and assisted their teaching.

Over the years we have hugely valued the many trips we’ve made to schools round the world, meeting up with teachers and students, and learning of their experiences and needs. Their stories – your stories – have influenced our writing. Nothing has given John and me greater satisfaction than teachers telling us how they felt that their students have made real progress using Headway.

As Headway became increasingly successful, we wanted to give something back to the ELT community to show our appreciation of all those students and teachers who were our inspiration and motivation. We decided to create the Headway Scholarship, sponsoring two students and two teachers from a country where Headway is widely used, to come to study in Oxford for a fortnight in the summer. We wanted to select students and teachers for whom such an opportunity wouldn’t otherwise be possible.

The first year of the Headway Scholarship was 2004, and the first country selected was Hungary – a country which has shown huge enthusiasm for Headway from the start. Over the following years, John and I discussed the country selection with the Headway team at OUP. Other countries in Europe were selected, then we extended the opportunity to the Middle East, Latin America, and most recently Ukraine and Turkey. The selection process has varied country to country, but each Headway Scholar has been a worthy recipient, having demonstrated their commitment – often via a competition – to English Language Teaching.

Liz and John Soars with four Headway Scholars at Exeter College in 2010

Although in the early years the Headway Scholarship was awarded to both students and teachers, it became apparent that the people who most benefited were the teachers. They attended the two-week EnglishLanguage Teachers’ Summer Seminar, held at Exeter College, Oxford. These teachers have all been very enthusiastic about this course. Whenever we were able to, John and I met up with them. Many of them have written to tell us about what had been for them an opportunity of a lifetime, how much they’d developed as teachers, how they valued exchanging ideas with so many other ELT professionals from round the world, and how they would pass on what they’d learned to the wider ELT community back home. This is why we decided to dedicate the Headway Scholarship to four teachers.

And now there is an exciting new development to tell you about! The country selection has always been hard, and we hate to deprive any teacher of this opportunity just because of where they live. So to mark ten years since the first Headway Scholarship, this year we are making the Scholarship global! Wherever you are in the world, as a Headway teacher, you will be eligible to enter the Headway Scholarship competition to win a place at the 2014 SummerSeminar in Oxford.

The Headway Scholarship is very important for me, as it was for John, and I’m delighted it’s expanding in scope. As you’ll see from the competition entry information, it’s all about ‘Making a difference’, which is exactly what John and I set out to do all those years ago when we started writing Headway.

Good luck to everyone!
Warm wishes,

Liz Soars

You can find the application form and terms and conditions to enter the competition on the Headway Fourth Edition page.

14 March 2014 UPDATE: Please note, we are no longer accepting applications for the Headway Scholarship. We have posted the shortlist of applicants on the Headway Fourth Edition page.

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Thank you for letting us know about the HEADWAY SCHOLARSHIP 2014. I have been teach English language for primary, lower secondary and high school since 14 years running. I will fill and attach the necessary documents. This would be very transformative platform for teachers and students who had been interacting with Headway teaching and learning like me.

We’d hoped to announce the shortlist this week but we’ve had such a wonderful response in both quality and quantity, that the judging is taking a little longer than originally planned. The shortlist will be announced next week, and the winners will be contacted soon afterwards. We still plan to announce all the winners in early April.

Thank you to everyone who has entered, and thank you for your patience!

Hello, everybody. I submitted my competition entry before the deadline but I can’t find any information about the results or view the winning entries. It seems to me, the winning entries were supposed to be published on some website in February. Is there any information yet?

We’d hoped to announce the shortlist this week but we’ve had such a wonderful response in both quality and quantity, that the judging is taking a little longer than originally planned. The shortlist will be announced next week, and the winners will be contacted soon afterwards. We still plan to announce all the winners in early April.

Thank you to everyone who has entered, and thank you for your patience!

dear
I am really happy to become familiar with this competition,
your books are the best,
I have a question,
my university certificate is “Teaching”
Does Oxford University offer any scholarship for P.h.D in Teaching?
can you guide me please?

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